Africa

It was barely a year ago that a mass movement of working people and
youths forced Blaise Compaore, the long-time dictatorial ruler of
Burkina Faso, to abdicate power. Since then, there has not been any
serious political event in the landlocked country that has attracted
massive global attention as much as the recent reactionary military coup
staged in the country. The transitional government was toppled on
Wednesday, 16 September 2015, in a military coup d’état, organized and
carried out by the elite unit of 1,300 men of the Presidential Security
Regiment (RSP) loyal to Compaore. The coup leaders installed rebel
leader General Gilbert Diendere, Compaore’s former chief of staff, as
the country’s new leader.

In the process, the leader of the interim government, Mr Michel Kafando
and his interim Prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida, who had been running
the country since a popular uprising deposed iron-fisted President
Blaise Compaore last October, were seized and arrested. This development
apparently sparked off a serious stand-off and tensions rose. Masses of
working people and youth stormed the streets with a clear sign of
revolutionary instinct to express their mass discontent against the coup.

To thousands of youths and poor working people, who converged on the
streets of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital, the coup was not only a
technical means to truncate the on-going transition process but
fundamentally an attempt to return the ancien régime through the
backdoor. The stated grievances of the coup plotters included their
opposition to plans by the transitional government to disband the
presidential guard and integrate them into the regular army. A second
grievance was the electoral law prohibiting members of Compaore’s party;
the Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP), as well as politicians
linked to last year’s bid to change the constitution in order to allow
Compaore another term in office, from participating in the coming
general election originally scheduled to hold on 11 October.

The determination among the working people not to allow the coup to
endure was so high that despite the fact that over 10 people died with
more than 100 injured, the mass confrontation of the working people with
the presidential guard not only continued but grew. In order to douse
the growing mass anger, the regular army troops upon their arrival in
the capital, Ouagadougou, on Monday, 20 September, ordered the anti-coup
protesters in Ouagadougou to return home. The opposition the army troop
earlier expressed to the coup by issuing an ultimatum for immediate
return of power to the interim government notwithstanding, they were not
prepared for any serious show-down with the coup plotters. This became
clearer with the kind of rotten and overnight agreement the army signed
with the Presidential Security Regiment (RSP) in front of the country’s
most influential traditional leader, Mogho Naba.

According to this agreement, the RSP was to step down from the positions
they had taken up in Ouagadougou, while the army was also to withdraw
its troops 50km from the capital and guarantee the safety of the RSP
members as well as their families. With this kind of agreement mediated
by the most influential traditional ruler in the country and regional
power blocs, it is obvious that the ruling class is aware that power is
neither in the hands of the RSP nor in the hands of army but on the
street. They have to agree on strategy to douse the growing mass anger
among the working people to prevent themselves being forced to take
power at the expense of either section of the ruling class contesting
for political power.

It is in line with this understanding that the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS), acting in conformity with the dictate of
its imperialist masters (EU, France, and UN), expressed opposition to
the coup. Their publicly expressed opposition to military coups
notwithstanding, the real concern of regional power blocs and
imperialism is that such military adventures, especially one so
unpopular, could easily spark mass revolt that threatens capitalism.
This is together with the ever-present risk of political instability,
civil strife and sectarian conflict that military incursions could
easily set-off in many countries on the continent.

During the protests that chased away Compaore last year and again this
year, the memory of Thomas Sankara came alive. Captain Thomas Sankara
ruled the country between 1983 and 1987 when he was killed in a coup
plotted by Blaise Compaore and the very same General Gilbert Diendere.
For the brief period he was in power he captivated the entire continent
with his progressive social and economic reforms as well as
anti-imperialist rhetoric, even though he failed to build a genuinely
democratic and socialist economy. Dubbed ‘Africa’s Che Guevara’,
Sankara’s image opens up in the minds of Africa’s youth the possibility
of an alternative road to development, different from the irrational
neo-liberal and pro-market road that the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and World Bank prescribes for the continent, where high growth
rate comes hand-in-hand with deepening poverty and mass misery,.

Especially since the 2011 mass uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt,
imperialism fears the power of independent movements from below of
Africa’s combative youth and working masses. They rightly fear that if
left alone, these movements could very well go beyond installing
democratic rights but also ending the capitalist system and imperialist
domination of the continent which are the causes of mass misery, poverty
and wars. This could explain why they quickly intervene once a movement
starts, just as they did in Libya and helping derail what started off as
an independent, pro-democracy and anti-imperialist revolt in order to
ensure that the movement did not go beyond ending Gadaffi’s dictatorial
regime. The result today is the destabilisation of Libya, with the
country divided among various armed sectarian gangs and social
conditions far much worse than before the revolt.

Can ECOWAS intervention end the crisis?

The way the coup in Burkina Faso rapidly disintegrated demonstrates the
enormous power of the youth and working masses. At every step of the
way, the negotiators from regional bodies and imperialism, as well as
the interim government, were conscious that only a solution that
satisfied the protesters on the streets could succeed. The peace plan
put together by ECOWAS to end the crisis in the former French colony,
which included an amnesty for the coup leaders and the lifting of an
electoral ban on those connected to Mr Compaore, was largely rejected by
members of the civil society and protesters, who felt betrayed by this
‘peace plan’. Protesters were reported saying, "General Diendere has
blood on his hands and the presidential guard do not deserve amnesty".
Protesters were also reported saying that the "proposals are not
acceptable and we shall hold our own destiny. The future of this country
belongs to us". Reflecting the pressure on the street, the country’s
interim president, Kafando, shortly after his reinstatement, was quoted
as follows: "Regarding the ECOWAS proposals for a solution to the
crisis, it is obvious that we will only commit to them if they take into
account the will of the Burkinabes."

Now the widely-hated presidential guard has been disbanded after a brief
standoff. Key participants in the coup, including coup leader General
Gilbert Diendere, were arrested and detained in early October. However
the truth is that the transition programme can only end up in the
formation of a pro-capitalist government that will not only fail to
bring a permanent respite to the economic woe under which the mass of
poor Burkinabes groan, but in most likelihood will make things worse.
While socialists energetically fight for democratic rights, we also
argue that winning them does not automatically lead to meaningful change
in people’s life and improvement in social conditions unless the
exploitative system of capitalism is replaced by a democratic socialist
alternative. Over 50% of Burkinabes population of 17.8 million live on
less than a dollar daily. More than 70% of the productive population are
jobless. The minimum wage is just $2 per day. The country is ranked 183
out of 186 on the Human Development Index. Going by this, it is obvious
the Burkinabe working masses should not have illusion in any section of
the capitalist ruling class, whether military or civilian. Instead the
working masses and youth must stay united in the struggle for democratic
rights and fight for an end to the condition of mass misery and poverty
which is caused by capitalism.

Independent Working People Socialist Alternative

The 2014 popular uprising in Burkina Faso has given rise to "Balai
Citoyen" (the Citizen’s Broom) – a civic movement that played a crucial
role in the mobilisation of the working people that led to both the
overthrow of Compaore’s regime and defeat of General Diendere. Even
though the leaders are inspired by Sankara’s legacy, the ideas behind
this movement and its slogans are very limited at the moment. There is
urgently needed an understanding that for real democracy and an end to
the condition of mass misery that pervades the country, there is a need
for an independent working masses’ political party that represents the
true interests of the mass majority and the building of a mass movement
to put an end to capitalism. To achieve this requires the working class
to be politically independent from pro-capitalist parties and leaders.
These ideas will gain echo in the coming period especially when
elections are finally held and the working masses realises that none of
the pro-capitalist political parties represents the genuine interests of
the workers, youth and poor.

One major weakness of the mass uprising is that while workers may have
joined protesters at the barricades and protest marches, the working
class did not intervene in an organised fashion and as a class through
its organisations. This is in spite of the existence of powerful trade
unions like the Confédération Générale des Travailleurs du Burkina
(CGTB) which led a two-day national strike in 2008 against the high cost
of living. Meanwhile historical experience shows that without the
working class organising itself and the poor, leading a revolutionary
struggle to end capitalism and building a new socialist society out of
its ashes, a permanent victory is not assured. Therefore for the
struggle for democracy and a better life to go forward, the civic
movements like the Balai Citoyen and the trade unions need to convene a
conference of workers, youths, farmers, unemployed and rank and file
members of armed forces who also live in poverty in the community,
workplaces, schools, villages, urban centres across the country, to
deliberate on the way forward. A democratic conference of this kind will
not only provide a forum to engage in thorough discussion and debate
over the political and economic crises in which the working people and
youth are victims but also how to continue to defend the democratic,
social and economic rights of workers, youth and poor masses. It can
also provide the most visible platform for an agreement on the formation
of an alternative working class and poor people’s political party to
fight for political power.

Only through the taking of political power by the workers and poor
masses, through a social revolution, can there be any hope of ending the
economic and political crises that ravages Burkina Faso. This would
involve firstly putting the public resources and wealth of the country
under a common ownership and control of the working masses and poor. For
instance, the mines, financial institutions and the cotton industry
would be nationalised and their management and control decided by
democratically elected representatives of the working people. This is
against the present situation whereby just 3 of the 11 banks that
control over 60% of the financial institution are owned by a handful of
local and foreign big business people. By taking the key sectors of the
economy under public ownership and workers’ democratic control and
management and linking this with a socialist plan, the possibilities
will open up for the ending of the mass misery and penury in which vast
majority of Burkinabes wallow. Only this kind of an independent working
people’s political programme can provide the necessary solution to the
economic and social quagmire being faced by the working and poor people.
This programme can unite the entire working people across every section
of society and prevent the country being plunged into civil war owing to
the self-serving rivalry among sections of the thieving ruling elites,
usually backed by foreign imperialist collaborators.

In view of the sabotage and blockade imperialism will launch in order to
defeat this kind of independent working people’s socialist agenda, there
will be need for an appeal for a revolutionary solidarity with working
and young people in the rest of Africa and across the world, to be able
to undermine such inevitable capitalist counter-revolutionary response.
The example of the ‘Arab Spring’ is an indication that a successful
revolution in any country of Africa can spread like wildfire across the
continent and beyond, thus undermining the ability of imperialism to
drown it in blood.